A hard-disk drive (HDD) is a non-volatile storage device that is housed in a protective enclosure and stores digitally encoded data on one or more circular disks having magnetic surfaces. When an HDD is in operation, each magnetic-recording disk is rapidly rotated by a spindle system. Data is read from and written to a magnetic-recording disk using a read/write head that is positioned over a specific location of a disk by an actuator. A read/write head uses a magnetic field to read data from and write data to the surface of a magnetic-recording disk. A typical write head makes use of the electricity flowing through a coil, which produces a magnetic field. Electrical pulses are sent to the write head, with different patterns of positive and negative currents. The current in the coil of the write head induces a magnetic field across the gap between the head and the magnetic disk, which in turn magnetizes a small area on the recording medium.
An HDD includes at least one head gimbal assembly (HGA) that typically includes a read/write head integral to a head slider that is mounted on a flexure, a lead suspension attached to the head slider, and a load beam coupled with the flexure which together provide a gimbal function. Typically, the slider is electrically interconnected to the lead suspension via connection pads on the respective components, which are solder ball bonded (SBB) together to form the final electrical interconnection between the components.
One approach to the solder ball bonding procedure uses a tool, referred to as a solder ball jet (SBJ), for feeding and ejecting the solder ball onto a work piece being solder connected. An SBJ includes a nozzle (SBJ nozzle), and generally operates by detecting a solder ball inside the nozzle tip and irradiating the solder ball with a laser to make molten solder. The molten solder is then blown out of the nozzle through the nozzle tip with an inert gas (e.g., nitrogen), onto the bonding surfaces, such as the respective connection pads of the slider and the lead suspension, thereby electrically interconnecting the connection pads and thus the components. The inner diameter of a SBJ nozzle tip is typically smaller than the diameter of a corresponding solder ball, in order to hold the solder ball in place for irradiation and expulsion of the molten solder.
Based at least in part on the design and configuration of a given SBJ nozzle, the nozzle may be prone to suffer damage during operation, such as damage caused by the repeated thermal shock associated with the laser irradiation power on/off cycles and/or by operator error and mishandling.
Any approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.